Talent manager Annabelle Rama. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Talent manager Annabelle Rama is asking a Quezon City court to lift the warrants issued for her arrest after she failed to show up for arraignment on 14 counts of libel lodged by ex-actress Nadia Montenegro.
Rama also appealed to the court to set aside its order for cancellation of the P140,000 surety bond she had posted for her provisional liberty.
In a four-page motion through lawyer Dereck Delegencia, the talent manager sought the suspension of the bench warrants against her pending the resolution of an earlier appeal.
Rama’s counsel filed the pleading on Wednesday after Judge Eleuterio Bathan of Regional Trial Court Branch 92 issued the arrest warrants against Rama.
The talent scout was ordered arrested and her bail canceled when she failed to appear at her arraignment on Monday. Only Delegencia was present on her behalf.
Delegencia told the court that his client was not available that day. Rama later posted on Twitter that she was in the United States.
In her motion, the feisty talent manager said she had no intention to disregard the scheduled arraignment.
Rama said she was of the “honest impression” that her presence was not needed because of a pending motion yet to be resolved by the court.
This was her appeal to the court to suspend her arraignment for 90 days as she was questioning her indictment by the Quezon City prosecutors’ office.
The court however denied Rama’s pleading early this week, even before the talent manager asked for the lifting of the arrest warrants.
The court junked the appeal to reset her arraignment on Sept. 10 due to lack of merit, pointing out that Rama’s motion for reconsideration at the prosecutor’s office did not fall among the conditions for the suspension of arraignment under the Revised Rules on Criminal Procedure.
The Quezon City prosecutors’ office charged Rama with 14 counts of libel for her allegedly malicious remarks on Twitter and in TV interviews against Montenegro, whose two daughters were being managed by Rama.